In New Hampshire on Monday, New England’s most closely contested governor’s race brought out a familiar surrogate in the election’s final hours
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey was in Manchester making the case for Joyce Craig as her counterpart in New Hampshire, painting her opponent, Kelly Ayotte, as a Trump Republican against abortion.
Healey also emphasized that the Harris-Walz campaign will protect reproductive rights.
“Kelly Ayotte — just like Donald Trump — they’re not about freedom. It’s not freedom when you want to deny a woman’s right to health care,” Healey said. “If they’re going to come after the freedom of our own body, there’s not freedom that they’re not going to come after.”
The presidential race is tight in the Granite State. A recent UNH poll found New Hampshire voters favoring Harris by five percentage points but split over which candidate they think is most likely to win the entire election — 42% think it will be Harris while another 42% think it will be Trump; 15% were not sure.
“There’s a lot of people around the country right now — they’re not feeling it. They’re pissed off at politics. They’re pissed off at politicians. They don’t think that anyone’s there for them,” Healey said. “I get that. And you know who else gets that? Kamala Harris and Tim Walz get that.”
While Ayotte was just ahead of Craig in the most recent UNH poll, Republicans said they were confident many of their nominees for Congress, who have been trailing in polls, will come through and even pull some upsets.
“I think it’ll be a landslide victory,” said Republican Richard Griffith, who has draped his pickup truck in all kinds of political flags.
The 73-year-old believes he speaks for a silent majority in New Hampshire looking to upset the establishment and bring a more conservative government led by Trump.
New Hampshire Republican State Committee Chair Chris Ager was trying to court undecided voters on the last day before the election by reminding them of what he calls “kitchen table” issues like the price of gas, education and transportation, which he links directly to the Biden-Harris administration.
“You could see a surprise on Election Day because the polls may say one thing but we may be able to achieve something better,” Ager said.
GOP candidate Russell Prescott is hearing a similar message from voters in Congressional District 1 – a seat currently held by Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas.
“We’re going to have a lot of people coming out that have never voted before. We’re going to have the largest turnout here in New Hampshire and we really are going to make a change,” Prescott said.
Lily Tang-Williams, who immigrated from China at age 27, is also hoping for an upset in her race, District 2, where polls show Maggie Goodlander ahead, by connecting with an electorate that, like her, feels disenfranchised.
“If people want to have a safe quality of life, live the American Dream and have peace and free speech, they should vote up and down Republican,” she said.
New Hampshire is a same-day registration state, so anyone who’s not registered can show up at the polls on Election Day with their ID and register to vote.
Elected officials urged everyone to get to the ballot box Tuesday because they said this is the most important election of our lifetime.
“Democracy is the exception in the history of the world, not the rule,” said New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan, who is not up for reelection this year. “Keep knocking, keep talking, this is our democracy. Americans believe in each other in freedom. We’re gonna move forward. Go get ’em everybody!”
